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Congratulations to Rob Daniels on his imminent 1000th Visions In Sound show! Tune in this Saturday at midnight for an epic in soundtrack adventures. Rob will be doing an unprecedented six hour show, with special guests and surprises. I plan on dropping by the studio around 5:00 am (10 am UK time). I’ll be up anyway.

I’ll always be grateful to radio for giving me a start. I won’t rehash the whole story but I used to be a call-in contest winner and then became a semi-regular guest. Radio is a lot of fun, though I don’t really listen to commercial stations anymore like the one that got my name out there originally. (I still appear on Rob Daniels’ Visions in Sound, and I’ll be back there in December at the latest to talk about new Star Wars music.) One thing that hasn’t changed is that I have met so many solid people through radio.

There’s Jolene the Jays fan, always raising money for good causes. Or Greg, the contest winner who seems to have free tickets to offer to me all the time. I met one of my best friends, Jay, through the radio. He noticed I was talking about Transformers one day and next thing you knew, we were buddies. And let’s not forget about Jamie, an old-school rocker who was writing articles for Access magazine under the tutelage of Keith Sharp back when I used to read it! It used to be that we listened to the same radio station, but in 2019 I was honoured to be a guest at Jamie’s wedding.

I’m very happy and proud to have met such good people thanks to radio. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that radio stations and their personalities are often very active in the community. They bring people with similar interests together, while making the city a better place.

Of course, like any platform, it’s not exclusively good people. There have been some seriously weird fucks that I’ve come into contact with thanks to the airwaves. Like Dean, the conspiracy theorizing anti-vax, bike-riding vegan. Or amateur wrestler turned far-right radio mogul Raymond. A few Proud Boys. The usual assholes.

I have fresh wounds from another radio listener. I never met him. He moved out to Alberta for work. He was one of those guys who would periodically have serious life problems and post them all over social media. Then he’d disappear a while and come back a few months later. His latest problems involved a workplace injury. He needed antibiotics and was short $28. He sent me a private message.

I thought about what my old man has said in the past. “If you loan somebody money, consider it a gift because you’ll never get it back.” And my dad is right; I’ve helped people out in the past and don’t usually get repaid. Sometimes it’s because I said “Don’t worry about it, you need this more than I do.” But usually it was just people stiffing me.

For whatever sympathetic reason, I sent the guy $30. He even sent me a picture back of the medication to prove that’s what he spent it on. I have no reason to disbelieve any of his story. He asked me for money again a few weeks later, promising to pay back the original $30. I said no that time. Then he asked for $20 for bus tickets. He caught me on a good day that time. A few days later he needed $25; I sent him a final $30 and said this would be the last time I could help him out. I left it unambiguous: this is the last time I can help you out. “Man I love you!” he responded.

One weekend in late September I heard frantic messages on my phone. I checked and it was him, needing $44 urgently. He was being evicted and was short $44 to rent a U-Haul van to move his stuff. He sent screenshots of landlords that owed him money. He sent screenshots of his bank balance in single digits. He showed an angry message from a landlord explaining that he already had three days’ court-ordered notice to pick up his stuff, and it would all be taken to the dump on the weekend. I was getting all these messages while my wife was recovering from a humiliating public epileptic seizure. I told him that I was very sorry, but I could not help him. The messages continued through the night as I was dealing with my own shit. He was promising me $88 in return for $44, within 24 hours.

I sat there, thinking to myself. On one side, I felt for the guy. Assuming he was being honest with me, he had only a few hours to raise $44 and move his stuff in a U-Haul. He was going to lose all his possessions that day. I felt terrible for him. I was already down $80 so what’s another $44? On the other hand…is there nobody else he can ask for help? Somebody who lives in the same province as him? Somebody who’s actually met him in person? Friends? Family? Not a stranger that he used to listen to on the radio?

Sunday afternoon my wife had another seizure. I heard my phone dinging but I didn’t answer it. I had bigger things on my mind. Later that evening, I checked my messages. His belongings had been taken to the dump.

“This is the point I’m done with social media,” the message began. From that I gather he’d been asking other Facebook “friends” for money. “Needed $44 to save thousands, got zero. Will be lucky to maintain an empty apartment on my wife’s money, my tools are gone so I can’t contribute.” Guilt trip time? I couldn’t believe this guy. Why should Facebook, or me for that matter, be responsible for you?

“Likely never hear from me again. I’m out.”

This one I responded to.

“Likely never hear from you again…even though you owe me money?”

I felt terrible the whole time I wrote this, but it had to be said.

“I told you last time, I would not be able to help you again. I don’t even know you. We have never met face to face. And now you are guilting me and threatening to rip me off?

“I am sorry but at this point I have no choice but to block you. I will never see my money again, I know that, but I refuse to be guilted when I have already been so generous.

“I hope whatever your problems are, you sort them out, but I cannot have this in my life.”

Alternating between feeling the guilt that I said I wasn’t going to let myself feel, and wondering what the fuck this guy expected of a total stranger, I went on with my night and worrying about my own wife. But what did he expect? I gave him money three times before. Small amounts, but I knew I wasn’t going to be paid back, and I told him on the third time that was it. Did he think we were…actual friends? Because he knew my voice on the radio, and because I write about my life in public, did he think we were…friends? He also wrote things about his life, but I tried to stay out of that. He seemed to be having problems with his job, his wife, and his sexual identity and I wanted nothing to do with a stranger’s problems. I have plenty of my own, believe me.

I tried to be a good person. I feel like I was a good person three times, but had to draw a line somewhere. The day that my wife was in the hospital having a seizure seemed like the right time to draw that line.

As for lines? The bottom line is that I have made some amazing friends through the radio, and I wouldn’t change that, ever. But you always have to have your guard up for the problems that come with it.

I’ve had the same routine for over 10 years: get to work, turn on the radio, and listen. I would occasionally hear new bands that I had to get into. I wouldn’t want to do without Greta Van Fleet, Royal Blood, or A Rebel Few in my life. But every routine eventually gets stale.

For the last several weeks I’ve been trying something different. No matter how much radio tries to shake it up, you are guaranteed to hear certain songs and bands every single day. AC/DC, for example, are a radio staple. You will hear them on rock stations every single day, usually from a pool of 10 to 12 songs. In my regular daily album-listening life, I don’t actually listen to AC/DC that often. In fact, I’m less likely to listen to AC/DC when I hear them on the radio daily.

At the recommendation of Uncle Meat I’ve been loading up flash drives and bringing them to work instead. This has enabled me to not only listen to whoever I feel like, but also given me the ability to play full albums.

The first day without radio was an interesting experiment. In the morning, I played the entire Max Webster The Party box set in its completion. In the afternoon, an album I hadn’t played in years: Neil Diamond’s 20th Century Masters! Part of doing without radio is forcing myself to listen to albums that don’t get regular rotation at home. Especially multi-disc sets. It’s easy to listen to a box set when you’re seated at the same desk for eight hours.

A nice big flash drive means I have hundreds of my favourite albums available at a click, but there are pros and cons.

PROS:

1. The chance to spend my listening time with my own music; hopefully neglected music.2. Hearing full albums.3. The ability to “pause” when I am interrupted and have to do something else.

CONS:

1. No traffic or news reports.2. A feeling of disconnection from the community and friends during the day.3. Missing those new tunes and rarities that sometimes surprise you on the radio.4. Going from a stereo radio behind me to a mono speaker in front of me.

It was really weird going without the morning radio news reports at first, but I’m used to it now.

This far into the journey I’ve played virtually every studio album by Kiss and Black Sabbath. I’m working my way through Priest next, and a whole bunch of soundtracks. I actually played Jeff Wayne’s legendary War of the Worlds musical two days in a row, so enthralled was I with the album. Featuring Justin Hayward, Richard Burton, and Philip flippin’ Lynott, it is an album I am glad to have finally caught up on. It’s the kind of thing you need to have the time to play, the more the better.

Hopefully, listening to more albums will enable me to review more albums. The unfortunate thing is not being exposed to new and unfamiliar songs. I’ll just have to rely on readers and other sources for that.

With flash drives by my side, 2018 will be the Summer of the Album. Let’s see how this experiment works!

One of the folks at work, who I call “Happy”, is a super guy but he doesn’t throw around compliments very readily. He’d rather tease most of the time. He happened to walk into my office while I was listening to the show. He listened with me for a few minutes, and then began his speech.

“You know, you might be offended by what I have to say, but listen,” he began. “You and I could be sitting in a bar and I would have no interest in anything you are talking about. You like music, I like sports. We have literally nothing in common to talk about.

“But you need to do a book, or a show, or something. I have listened for two minutes, and I am already interested in what you’re talking about. I don’t care about this stuff. But you made me want to care.

“It was the same when you were on that other station, Dave FM. We were listening here at work when you were on. I don’t care about any of that music, but you make it interesting.

“It’s like when I am watching soccer with my wife. There can be an amazing British commentator talking about it, and I am so into what he is saying. My wife, she does not care. Not at all. But you, you can talk in such a way that you make it interesting for people who do care, and people who are not interested at all.

“You have a gift, and you need to be on a show, or do a book. And if you’re offended by this I don’t care!”

During Craig’s live “Tedious Tiresome Trivia” segment on the Tuesday afternoon show (on which he takes live phone calls), he received a call from Ray at “Visa Mastercard”. The entire thing went out on the air, live, just as you hear it below. There’s nothing Craig loves more than messing with a solicitor calling into his show. Needless to say, things go wonky very quickly.

What I learned from “Visa Mastercard” on this call is that, apparently, your credit card number is not personal information. It’s right there on the face of the card, so that makes it public…apparently. “Anyone can see that or memorise that,” according to the “Visa Mastercard” rep (“not a third party!”) that unwittingly called a radio station.

I might not rock and roll all night, or party every day. I do, however, sleep well at night because I rock and roll most of the day.

I play music every day. I have played music every day with only a few exceptions for the last 30+ years. A grade 8 weeklong Catholic school retreat at Mt. Mary meant a week of no music, so I listened to as much Kiss as I could beforehand. I hoped to have the tunes in my head all week. Unfortunately that’s not a substitute for the real thing, but I did survive Mt. Mary.

I have always said that listening to the radio at work is a much better fate than listening to whatever was popular at the Record Store in the later days. Better for me, anyway, rather than being force-fed Franz Ferdinand, Alicia Keys, or Big Shiny Tunes all day. I’d much rather check out what’s on the local rock airwaves. The higher-ups at the Record Store didn’t like my kind of music much, so when they were around I stuck to the stuff they wanted played. I didn’t want to get in shit for playing Kiss in store anymore.

Below you’ll find what a typical happy day at work sounds like today. I used July 5 2017 as a sample date. There are a few readers here who listen to the same radio station I do (107.5 Dave Rocks where I have done guest shots in the past) so some will know these songs well. Then there are others who loathe the radio (which is fine) and they can skip this one.

I started my daily commute that day with the second disc of Rush’s 2112, the 40th anniversary edition. The drive to work consisted of the cover tunes by Foo Fighters, Billy Talent, Steven Wilson, Jacob Moon and Alice in Chains. On this trip I was struck by how little like Alice in Chains they sounded. I was also very impressed (as usual) with Jacob Moon. I’m almost embarrassed to add that Billy Talent is gradually growing on me, and this Rush cover doesn’t hurt their case.

When I got into the office I turned on the radio to hear One Bad Son. They are a new hard rock band from Saskatoon, but they sound international. A band to keep an ear to the ground for. The day went on as you see it below. I have marked all Canadian Content songs with a red CC, since radio stations in Canada must play certain percentages of CanCon.

60. Big Sugar – “Dear Mr. Fantasy” CC
61. Led Zeppelin – “Rock and Roll” – Third Zep for the shift and the most typical.
62. The Offspring – “Gone Away” – A band I never ever liked.
63. Def Leppard – “Hysteria” – Their greatest ballad ever.
64. Bon Jovi – “Lay Your Hands On Me” – Second Jovi of the shift and second from New Jersey.
65. The Trews – “Lotta Work Little Love” – Second Trews of the shift.CC
66. Soundgarden – “Blow Up the Outside World” – Second Soundgarden and second from Down on the Upside.
67. Triumph – “Lay It On the Line” (remixed) CC
68. The Rolling Stones – “Gimme Shelter” – Second and best Stones of the shift.
69. Green Day – “Revolution Radio”
70. The Clash – “Rock the Casbah” – Booooring.
71. The Standstills – “Orleans” – Great Canadian blues rock duo. Check them out. CC

And that was it. That’s 7:30 to 4:30 right there, not a bad shift to work. I went home resuming the Rush, and that got me to the door.

Car: Rush – 2112 40th anniversary edition (live songs from disc 2)

How do you like that day? There were very few stinkers in that list of songs. I could leave behind the Nickelback, the “Rock the Casbah”, and the Struts among others. Those tracks aside, this was a very solid day of great rock and roll, new and old. No repeat. Only a few bands had more than one song played. A good number of songs were off the beaten track. Pretty good for a full day at the office, right? I count my blessings every day, believe me! I am very grateful I get to listen to such great music at work.

Regular readers know that for the past five weeks (except one!) I’ve been appearing with Rob Daniels on his radio show Visions in Sound at 98.5 CKWR, talking about movie soundtracks. Also appearing were Erik Woods and Jason Drury live from the UK. May was Star Wars month, and we did four shows dedicated to the 40th anniversary of that franchise:

So thanks Rob for asking me to be on the show, and to new friends Erik and Jason.

Not to toot our own horns too much, but these were great shows. It’s hard to listen live at 12:30 in the morning, but if you take the time to listen to one of these shows in the archives, I know I’d appreciate it. Great music was played, much geeking-out was had, but you’ll also hear a ton of knowledge that you probably never knew before, from four guys who live and breathe this stuff.

I will be going LIVE at 12:30 AM (ET) Saturday morning with Robert Daniels on VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in on your dial to 98.5 or internet toCKWR! You folks in the UK can tune in as you enjoy some morning java!

Rob says: “May is Star Wars month on Visions In Sound and we will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary with a slew of special shows. Joining me this week will be special guests Jason Drury, Michael Ladano & Erik Woods to help with the celebration. Featured music will be from the original Star Wars trilogy (John Williams). Join Us THIS Saturday 12:30-2:30am (ET)”

Like this:

“Another lovely day begins, for ghosts and ghouls with greenish skin. So close your eyes and you will find that you’ve arrived in Frightenstein. Perhaps the Count will find a way to make his monster work today. For if he solves this monster-mania, he can return to Transylvania! So welcome where the sun won’t shine, to the castle of Count Frightenstein!” – Vincent Price

GETTING MORE TALE #466: Clap for the Wolfman

I surely cannot be the only person in the world who heard of rock and roll because of the legendary radio DJ Wolfman Jack…although mine was in a roundabout way!

The irresistibly gravel-voiced Wolfman Jack was born in 1938 as Robert Smith. A love of classic horror led to the creation of the Wolfman character. He played rock and roll records from a high-powered transmitter on the Mexico border. So powerful was the signal that Jack claimed “Birds dropped dead when they flew too close to the tower.” On a clear night, listeners in the Soviet Union could hear the Wolfman half a world away.

Killing birds and eating records, the Wolfman really came to fame when tapes of his broadcasts were used for radio syndication. By selling his tapes world-wide, Jack could be heard on over 2000 stations at his peak. The Wolfman character became synonymous with rock and roll no matter where you lived.

American Graffiti: Richard Dreyfuss and Wolfman Jack

I was too young to know of Wolfman Jack directly. I was even too young for American Graffiti, the 1973 George Lucas classic about the cruising scene in Modesto California circa the summer of ’62. Wolfman Jack made a memorable appearance as himself, and did radio DJ intros for most of the tunes through the movie. This however was preceded by a 1971 Canadian kid’s comedy show called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Similarly to of the syndication that made the Wolfman a smash success, Frightenstein was on TV well into the 70’s and 80’s, even though all the episodes were made in 1971. Via Frightenstein, I learned who the Wolfman was.

Because of the endless re-runs, there was no way for young Canadian kids to miss it. Before we had cable, it was one of the few shows we could reliably get, both at home and at the cottage, as it was broadcast from Hamilton Ontario. Billy Van played almost every character himself: Grizelda the Witch, the Librarian, Dr. Pet Vet, Bwana Clyde Batty (a British explorer who ran the “Zany Zoo”), and many more. Van’s most memorable character however had to be The Wolfman – an actual wolfman radio DJ inspired by Jack, down to the gravelly voice and wolf howls! The Wolfman would spin classic rock and roll records each show, accompanied by psychedelic images of him dancing and playing air guitar with the character of Igor, played by Fishka Rais. (The huge Rais was one of very few additional actors on the show. Vincent Price and Professor Julius Sumner Miller recorded all their parts over the course of the summer of 1971. And let’s not forget Guy Big, as the Midget Count!)

When the Wolfman’s segments would begin, you would know it immediately. His theme song was “I Wanna Take You Higher” by Sly and the Family Stone. “I am the Wolfman! Ah-oooooooo!” he would howl at the start of his show. He would play “golden oldies” by the Stones and other classic rock and roll artists, on his radio station “EECH”. He would tell callers that he was “fangtastic”. (The “golden oldies” concept was brilliant. Even if he was playing a fairly recent Stones single, he’d call it a “golden oldie”, thus ensuring that the show seemed current even when being broadcast in, say, 1986. Planning and syndication!)

One of the few Youtube clips featuring original audio and music.

So there I was, a young kid sitting on the basement floor during Canadian winter, playing with Lego and watching this pretty low-budget kid’s show, when suddenly this wolfman appeared! “I am the Wolfman! Ahooooooo!” I didn’t know the music. I’d never heard Sly and the Family Stone. They were great! I was hooked. I even made my own tapes of the Wolfman. I played the Wolfman…and all the other characters. I had him battling Star Wars composer John Williams for chart superiority! Fortunately, these tapes no longer exist!

I had no idea yet that Billy Van’s Wolfman was based on a real person. That came later, probably through my parents, as I learned more about rock and roll. All I knew was that he was a fun character who played good songs. “I Wanna Take You Higher” was an early favourite. The Stones made a strong impression. He also played Mungo Jerry. I didn’t like the slow songs. Unfortunately due to the legal rights involved, “I Wanna Take You Higher” had to be replaced on the DVD versions. Rights could only be obtained to release a few episodes on disc. (Most of the Youtube clips you will find are overdubbed versions with different music, and a new voice, since Billy Van had passed away before the DVDs were released.)

Wolfman Jack himself appeared on many television shows and records over the years. After American Graffiti, he appeared in the ill-advised sequel, which flopped. TV loved him; he even guested on Battlestar Galactica’s spinoff series Galactica 1980. Notably, in 1974 he appeared as himself on The Guess Who’s classic single “Clap for the Wolfman”, a memorable tribute featuring plenty of the Wolfman’s trademark growl. His influence trickled down, creating waves far exceeding the radio broadcasts that once reached Russia. Via these tributes to his accomplishments, the Wolfman served to introduce rock and roll music to new generations, either via TV and movies or Billy Van’s character inspired by him. Clap for the Wolfman indeed!

A selection of songs I’ve been rocking out to on the radio lately, for your consideration and perusal.

ROYAL BLOOD – “Figure It Out”
It seems that bass/drums duos are all the rage. I like this awesome, aggressive groove from the English duo of Royal Blood. Just slammin’! Proof that you don’t need more than two people to make good heavy rock!

DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 – “Trainwreck 1979”
Having ignored these two Canadian guys for years, I have recently become infatuated with “Trainwreck 1979”. I could do without the piano touches and the “woo ooo ooo’s” but it’s hard to deny that this is a slamming song living up to its name. Well done, Death From Above 1979.

I MOTHER EARTH – “The Devil’s Engine”
Different from anything I’ve heard this band do before, “The Devil’s Engine” combines traditional IME percussion with metallic riffs and licks. With the prior single “We Got the Love” out in 2012, it would be nice to get a new album by I Mother Earth.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS – “Follow Me Down”
I haven’t been a fan of the Pretty Reckless. Until now I’ve found their music to be tiredly generic. This track, however, kicks it! Taylor Momsen’s turned herself into a metal howler, in her natural environment. Her songs can get repetitive but I’m not bored with this one yet.

I’ve also recently rediscovered some of these tracks that I knew very well, but have been dusted off on the radio recently.

AC/DC – “Rock the Blues Away”
I’m glad that after “Play Ball” and “Rock Or Bust”, this excellent AC/DC track has been chosen as the newest single from AC/DC’s latest. It’s absolutely a favourite of mine! Great choice for a single.

TRIUMPH – “Lay It on the Line”
This is undeniably a Canadian classic of double-necked guitar majesty. I noticed that the version getting airplay today is the beefier remixed version, from Greatest Hits Remixed. (I was the only listener that noticed, I know because I wrote in to ask about it!)